Extended Warranties: Are they worth it?

So you bought a new laptop (desktop,  tablet or whatever) and the sales person offers you a warranty. It sounds like a good deal, might as well get the extra protection, right? Not necessarily. Warranties may save you money in the long run, but they certainly do not save you time. If you do not get the on-site warranty, you are going to have to send your computer to the manufacturer and wait 6-8 weeks to get it back. And, this warranty only covers hardware. So, if your hard drive went out, they would not save any of your data or programs. Also, if and when something does happen, it can be quite the hassle trying to get the warranty information from the company.

Let’s use an example, a car warranty. TOTALLY WORTH IT. I have used mine up for sure and then some. My trusty 2007 Chevy Trailblazer is on its second extended warranty and at 95,000 miles, I was thrilled I could get it! I think it’s a 3 year or 36,000 mi…so I am good to go. But this is not the same happy warranty your computer manufacturer will offer and as we said above, it’s not easy to get the warranty work done.

Example:

We accepted a job assignment from an online computer job request site. The request was to go onsite, diagnose and determine a customer’s screen replacement for an ASUS computer. My tech was at this job for 2 hours. Then he had to come back to our office and call ASUS and get the screen ordered. After 3.5 hours on the phone, no joy. A screen could not get ordered. He got hung up on two times and another time, he got someone from another country that he couldn’t understand and the whole call was pointless. Trust me, if you get sick of calling tech support and getting someone from another country, we are very used to this in our industry and while we don’t mind, we do know that when we have to call in a warranty job, that we will be on hold or on wait for well past an hour.

Turns out that the screen could not get ordered as we were instructed to do. We called the client to inform them and let’s just say, he is not the happiest guy in the world. We told him to buy a new screen himself and give the receipt to the warranty company. For the $140 all inclusive plan he bought, this may never get resolved. Yes, we are doing what we can to help him in regards to contacting the company that hired us, but they are twice removed from the actual manufacturer of the company! CRAZY.

Overall, we took a huge hit on this job, might not sign up to take one again. The lesson for you is this…when you buy the extended warranty, do the math  and consider your time before you buy it. If a hard drive fails, yes…it will be covered after the 1 year, but…to lose your computer for even a few days will hurt your business, your life and you might still end up paying for data backup, etc. I would consider this before you buy it. Sending your computer off to a depot in Kentucky for weeks is not the best choice. Use local support here in Minnesota and get your computer back up and running with that warranty money. Just my tip folks!

Lisa

Tags: do extended warranties save you money, extended computer warranties, extended warranty for my computer

Category: General